La Vaghezza plays music from the Italian 1600s

Mayah Kadish & Ignacio Ramal, violins

Gianluca Geremia lute

Anastasia Baraviera cello

Marco Crosetto harpsichord

The music in this programme shapes a portrait of colours and atmospheres found in the early 1600s in Italy. It is a music of originality, unpredictability, extravagance, experimentation, and great freedom - qualities held dear by La Vaghezza. We have included several of the most influential composers of the period, while also seeking to highlight repertoire that has not been widely played. The musical forms chosen (sonate, balli, etc) aim to provide an overview of the musical landscape of the time.

The 1600s saw the musical score become a more complex animal than in the previous century, and yet much of the music’s detail was not written into the score, but rather left to the sensibility of the performer. Great importance was given to the graces, ornaments, improvisations and diminutions that the performer would add. The scores that have been handed down to us through the ages are the skeleton, the bones, to be fleshed out and given blood by the performer as they weave their own into the music.Roger North talked beautifully about this process in his autobiography, maintaining that the sound a musician produces must then be sculpted, carved, by means of graces and ornaments. It is from this idea that we loosely took inspiration for the title of this programme, Sculpting the Fabric. The historical practices of carving the fabric in this musical period, are an invitation for performers to keep reinventing this music, for each utterance of the music to be a creative act.

‘A great, luminous whole [...] Played [...] sensually, racingly, poignantly’
* * * * * Klassik

‘Enviable instrumental quality [...] a total freedom in tone
[...] unpredictability and extravagance’
* * * * * On.Mag

‘keeps the listener continuously on the edge of their seat’* * * * * Rondo

‘five individual energies [...] one sensitivity’
* * * * * Melómano

‘full of affect and effect’
* * * * Pizzicato

‘vibrant, luminous and moving [...] a miracle’
Ritmo

Programme

T. Merula (1595-1665) Ballo detto Eccardo, “Canzoni overo sonate concertate per chiesa e camera”

F. Cavalli (1602-1676) Canzona a 3, “Musiche Sacre”
T. Merula Ballo detto Gennaro, “Canzoni overo sonate concertate per chiesa e camera”

C. Monteverdi (1567-1643) Cor mio non mori? E mori (diminutions by Mayah Kadish)
G. B. Fontana (1589-1630) Sonata Settima, “Sonate a 1, 2, 3 per il violin o cornetto, fagotto...o simile altro istromento”

B. Marini (1594-1663) La Zorzi
G.B. Vitali (1632-1692) Bergamasca, “Partite sopra diverse sonate” F. Turini (1589-1656) Sonata a doi violini. Secondo tuono

A. Gabrieli (1533-1585) “Giovane donna sott’un verde lauro” (diminutions by Ignacio Ramal)
S. Rossi (1570-1630) Sinfonia Nona, “Sinfonie et gagliarde, Libro primo”
A. Falconieri (1585-1656) Folias echa para mi Senora Dona Tarolilla de Carallenos, “Il primo libro di canzone, sinfonie, fantasie...”

In collaboration with Heath Street Arts and Baroquestock